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Archive 2021 · D500 Shooters. What is your next upgrade?

  
 
LeifGoodwin
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p.2 #1 · D500 Shooters. What is your next upgrade?


A Z500, whatever they call it - and definitely Zed not Zee - would suit me. DX sensor, at least 20 mega pixies, ~ D500 AF, sensor clean, decent build. A Z7 III would be ideal but I can’t justify the expense.


Mar 15, 2021 at 09:00 AM
EB-1
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p.2 #2 · D500 Shooters. What is your next upgrade?


LeifGoodwin wrote:
A Z500, whatever they call it - and definitely Zed not Zee - would suit me. DX sensor, at least 20 mega pixies, ~ D500 AF, sensor clean, decent build. A Z7 III would be ideal but I can’t justify the expense.


That's it - a Z500.

EBH



Mar 15, 2021 at 09:18 AM
sjms
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p.2 #3 · D500 Shooters. What is your next upgrade?


i see no need to till it becomes nonfunctional or someone offers a ridiculously high price for it.


Mar 15, 2021 at 09:31 AM
ChrisMak
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p.2 #4 · D500 Shooters. What is your next upgrade?


LeifGoodwin wrote:
A Z500, whatever they call it - and definitely Zed not Zee - would suit me. DX sensor, at least 20 mega pixies, ~ D500 AF, sensor clean, decent build. A Z7 III would be ideal but I can’t justify the expense.


+1 on a Z500 as my first choice (by far), with a 600mm f5.6PF.
Realistically though, looking at Sony's and Canon's total neglect of aps-c mirrorless, I give it a 10% chance of a Z500 materializing, but would be thrilled if it did with a 24mp stacked sensor.
You can spend a good deal of wasted energy and time on wishing for something to come though, so I try to keep it realistic for myself, and am saving up for the Z9. The Z9 is a fact, a Z500 (or Z900) very far from being a fact or even a likelyhood.


Edited on Mar 15, 2021 at 10:02 AM · View previous versions



Mar 15, 2021 at 09:32 AM
tobycat2
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p.2 #5 · D500 Shooters. What is your next upgrade?


a Z500 or additional lenses, preferably PF lenses (400mm, 600mm)?


Mar 15, 2021 at 09:50 AM
OwlsEyes
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p.2 #6 · D500 Shooters. What is your next upgrade?


AccessDenied wrote:
For wildlife, the D500 is perfect for my needs.
For landscape, architecture, portraiture; these are typically paying jobs - a larger sensor would be nice.
For printing, optimal sizes under 11x14". I've had a few requests lately for even larger prints and the 20MP sensor just can't handle that.

I don't think we need to be chasing triple digit MP here. But somewhere like 36MP on the D500 successor would be nice to have, for me personally at least.


I'm surprised that you can't print out to 14" with a 20MP file. I've printed and sold 40" prints with my former 1DmkII and that had 8MP.
In my most recent exhibition, I was using my D500 (20MP) and D4 (16MP) for the entire show. It was a mix of landscape and wildlife. The smallest piece was 20" and I ended up selling 6 of 12 photographs (it was a northwoods "calendar" show) for $450 a piece. There was not a single buyer who thought any picture lacked sufficient detail... even when viewed from an unnaturally close distance.

Now, to be clear, I fully recognize the value of a 36 to 60MP file for product photography or sweeping landscapes with distant branches and leaves, but the main draw for high resolution in wildlife photos is "crop-ability." Many of the wildlife photographers on this forum shoot w/ 40MP+ cameras just to crop them down to 20MP...

cheers,
bruce



Mar 15, 2021 at 10:55 AM
MatthewK
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p.2 #7 · D500 Shooters. What is your next upgrade?


I consider the D500 + 500PF the perfect birding kit. If I shot more than just birds, I'd easily say "D850", but I don't, so I won't. Z series, I don't trust the AF for small birds, and the D5/6 are overpriced, AF/FPS overkill with less pixel density, meaning I'd have to go back to a 600 f/4 + TC. Ugh.

Here's what Nikon could tempt me with:

1) D550 DSLR
2) Z500 with bird eye-AF and keep using 500PF w/ FTZ
3) Z500 + 200-600... big maybe, this rig would have to be pretty stellar

So, will be sticking w/ the D500 for the foreseeable future.






Mar 15, 2021 at 12:20 PM
Ssj92
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p.2 #8 · D500 Shooters. What is your next upgrade?


I use D500 + 80-400 AF-S combo. My other cams are D800, D700, and Z50.

Only camera I am looking forward to is a D880 or D580 (w/e they would be called). I don't think I can replace my D500 with a Z camera yet.



Mar 15, 2021 at 02:23 PM
AccessDenied
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p.2 #9 · D500 Shooters. What is your next upgrade?


OwlsEyes wrote:
I'm surprised that you can't print out to 14" with a 20MP file. I've printed and sold 40" prints with my former 1DmkII and that had 8MP.
In my most recent exhibition, I was using my D500 (20MP) and D4 (16MP) for the entire show. It was a mix of landscape and wildlife. The smallest piece was 20" and I ended up selling 6 of 12 photographs (it was a northwoods "calendar" show) for $450 a piece. There was not a single buyer who thought any picture lacked sufficient detail... even when viewed from an unnaturally close distance.

Now, to be
...Show more

Well first let me just say congrats on the successful exhibition! That's amazing! I sold my first print ever a few months ago and it was the best feeling.. Someone just walked up, pointed to a metal print and said "I want this" while proceeding to take out a credit card - didn't even ask the price. I was floored. And it was my most expensive piece... Anyways

As for printing, it's not that I can't print larger than 14". I've printed as large as 16x20" with a cropped image from my D500 and it looks okay - and you're right, a customer will likely never notice the flaws that we see as creators. But, I am quite often cropping images from my D500, so it's not always 20MP to play with while printing. Sometimes it's less than half of that (whoops!). Having some extra pixels to play with crop and print would be nice, of course.

I've just recently sold 4 landscape prints (11x14") and the client asked about one of them in particular getting blown up to about 24 x 36" with a different crop. I hesitated because I worried the image would not come out great and look bad on me as a photographer. I guess there is really only one way to know for sure - stop making assumptions, print it, and see how it really looks.






Mar 15, 2021 at 04:46 PM
OwlsEyes
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p.2 #10 · D500 Shooters. What is your next upgrade?


AccessDenied wrote:
Well first let me just say congrats on the successful exhibition! That's amazing! I sold my first print ever a few months ago and it was the best feeling.. Someone just walked up, pointed to a metal print and said "I want this" while proceeding to take out a credit card - didn't even ask the price. I was floored. And it was my most expensive piece... Anyways

As for printing, it's not that I can't print larger than 14". I've printed as large as 16x20" with a cropped image from my D500 and it looks okay - and you're right,
...Show more

Congratulations on your sales as well.
Like I said, for landscapes you will benefit from the extra megapixels. If you are cropping your 20mp D500 to get a satisfactory image, you will need to crop a D850/Z7 image to that point as well... tomato or tomato...
When the fabled 60MP Z? arrives, you can crop deep and produce a relatively large file, but that camera does not currently exist in the Nikon ecosystem.
It looks like you would benefit from Topaz Gigapixel to get more MP from your smaller files and a high res FX camera for your landscapes.
regards,
bruce



Mar 15, 2021 at 09:42 PM
Lance B
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p.2 #11 · D500 Shooters. What is your next upgrade?


AccessDenied wrote:
As someone who only owns one camera (D500) and primary shoots wildlife and macro, with the occasional portrait, landscape, architecture, etc. I'm curious who else out there has yet to find something worth spending the money on to either replace or supplement the D500 in their bags.

If you're in a similar position, what's your dream upgrade? What is the realistic path forward? Is there anything out on the market now (including recent announcements [ahem Z9...]) that have you interested, money ready, or already purchased/down payment?

I like the idea of having a second camera body, redundancy is good.
But I struggle with
...Show more

I shoot birds, animals and landscapes mainly, plus other odds and ends. I have a D500, D850 and a Z7II (and an unsold Z7). So, my primary cameras are the Z7II for +90% of my shooting and the D850 and D500 for my wildlife shooting *if* I require tracking or very fast moving BIF. I am transitioning from DSLR to ML and have sold off all my F mount lenses under my 70-200 except for the 105 f1.4E and 105 f2.8 Micro - my F mount lenses are, 105 f1.4E, 105 f2.8 Micro, 80-400 f4.5-5.6G VR, 400 f2.8E FL VR and 500 f5.6 PF. I have an unsold 70-200 f2.8E FL VR but it is up for sale.

In your case, if you want to transition to ML, and want something to compliment your D500, then a Z7/Z7II would fit the bill and you can use your F mount lenses via and FTZ. It is small and can fit in your camera bag taking up little room. If you want, you can then also transition, like I did, to Z mount lenses and slowly sell off the wider angle F mount lenses and replace them with smaller and better performing Z mount zooms or the better performing primes. You then use your Z7/Z7II for all duties under say 100mm and your D500 for all duties above 100mm, which is what I did for a while, although I was mainly using the D850 and Z7. The Z7/Z7II would be used for landscapes, architecture, portraiture and macro and the D500 for use with wildlife etc. They could cohabitate in the same bag depending on what lenses you have in the bag.

To be honest, I actually use my Z7II and 500 f5.6 PF most of the time when birding and only resort to the D500 or D850 if I am going after fast moving BIF or tracking BIF. Sometimes I will go out with the D500 and 400 f2.8E FL VR or D850 and 400 f2.8E FL VR + 1.4x TCIII.



Mar 16, 2021 at 01:20 AM
AccessDenied
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p.2 #12 · D500 Shooters. What is your next upgrade?


JasonTheBirder wrote:
I have been thinking about this for a while. My D500 is probably around 30K shots so obviously still a lot of life in it.

My first thought is just get another D500. There will probably be new ones or very lightly used ones out there for a while so my next camera could just be another D500.

There is also the Z9, which is intriguing. If Nikon releases an APS-C Z9 companion like a Z900 I would likely get that. Not sure if I would really want to get the Z9. That mainly depends on what Z mount PF lenses are
...Show more

I agree with everything you've said; my D500 is nearing 100k on the shutter though.
I've been dreaming for a 600mm PF, or even a 400mm F4 PF...

Problem is, a Z9 with a 600mm F5.6 PF would likely be somewhere in the $12,000 range I would imagine? Just speculation...

I'm coming from Pentax just a few years ago though, so honestly I have nothing but GREAT things to say about my D500 and 500mm PF! hahaha



Mar 16, 2021 at 07:50 AM
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p.2 #13 · D500 Shooters. What is your next upgrade?


OwlsEyes wrote:
Congratulations on your sales as well.
Like I said, for landscapes you will benefit from the extra megapixels. If you are cropping your 20mp D500 to get a satisfactory image, you will need to crop a D850/Z7 image to that point as well... tomato or tomato...
When the fabled 60MP Z? arrives, you can crop deep and produce a relatively large file, but that camera does not currently exist in the Nikon ecosystem.
It looks like you would benefit from Topaz Gigapixel to get more MP from your smaller files and a high res FX camera for your landscapes.
regards,
bruce


That's a great point. Multiple great points...
I actually have played around with Topaz suite but my laptop couldn't handle the workflows at the time. I built a new SFFPC last year though so it should be just fine now. Maybe I'll grab the trial software and test it out again.

The other thing I'm trying to determine is if a fabled 60MP Z arrives, will it be the thing I want to spend ultimately $7-8k on for a new body and native lens?
Or, will I want to take my wife on a really nice vacation since we've been unable to the last couple of years due to my grad school, and that darn thing called COVID...

I think the latter is a better use of my funds at the moment
Plus, what better way to improve my photography than to, wait for it, go somewhere unique to take photos?!

AND, that's not to say I can't pick up a used D850 for $1800 or so, and still have $4-5k for a decent vacation!!
Best of both worlds?



Mar 16, 2021 at 07:55 AM
JasonTheBirder
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p.2 #14 · D500 Shooters. What is your next upgrade?


AccessDenied wrote:
Problem is, a Z9 with a 600mm F5.6 PF would likely be somewhere in the $12,000 range I would imagine? Just speculation...

I'm coming from Pentax just a few years ago though, so honestly I have nothing but GREAT things to say about my D500 and 500mm PF! hahaha


Pretty accurate pricing, I think. That's part of the reason why I want to wait for a Z900 since I'm always cropping anyway.

I think anyone would have good things to say about the 5D500 and 500pf regardless of what brand you previously had. It just produces very capable images. But actually, I used to shoot with Pentax also! haha. But when I got seriously into birding, I sold almost everything and moved to Nikon. Now I'm pretty much happy except for LV shooting and I do wish I had some of the AF features of the A9 or A1, which is why the Z9 has my interest.



Mar 16, 2021 at 08:41 AM
AccessDenied
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p.2 #15 · D500 Shooters. What is your next upgrade?


JasonTheBirder wrote:
Pretty accurate pricing, I think. That's part of the reason why I want to wait for a Z900 since I'm always cropping anyway.

I think anyone would have good things to say about the 5D500 and 500pf regardless of what brand you previously had. It just produces very capable images. But actually, I used to shoot with Pentax also! haha. But when I got seriously into birding, I sold almost everything and moved to Nikon. Now I'm pretty much happy except for LV shooting and I do wish I had some of the AF features of the A9 or A1, which
...Show more

Hah nice! What did you shoot with? My primary kit was a K-3ii and DA*300 with the 1.4xTC
It was actually a very nice combination, but AF was SLOW in comparison to the D500/500PF combo...

I do miss in body image stabilization and focus peaking, but I don't regret the sell-off to go with Nikon. This was in 2016 I think? I was waiting patiently for the K-3iii announcement... Glad I didn't wait another 4+ years!?



Mar 16, 2021 at 09:42 AM
JasonTheBirder
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p.2 #16 · D500 Shooters. What is your next upgrade?


AccessDenied wrote:
Hah nice! What did you shoot with? My primary kit was a K-3ii and DA*300 with the 1.4xTC
It was actually a very nice combination, but AF was SLOW in comparison to the D500/500PF combo...

I do miss in body image stabilization and focus peaking, but I don't regret the sell-off to go with Nikon. This was in 2016 I think? I was waiting patiently for the K-3iii announcement... Glad I didn't wait another 4+ years!?


Pentax K-50 with the FA*300 f/4.5. It was okay, but only was sufficiently sharp at f/5.6 and above. I tested that lens under controlled conditions (flash+live view) against the Tamron 150-600 G2 and 500PF. At f/5.6 it was actually pretty close to the Tamron at 300mm but the 500PF blows both of those away in resolving power. Of course the Pentax also had horrendous AF as it was a screwdrive lens. In fact, I could often MF faster than I could AF. BIF was essentially impossible. And of course 300mm was insufficient for most birds. Still, with patience I got a few decent images out of it, and I was in Australia so the birding was easier there. You can't even compare it to the D500+500PF, but I still cherish the images I got with that lens because it was my first exposure to birding and the images bring back many fond memories. And there are still several few dozen images I got out of that combo that are large-print worthy on those rare occasions that I did manage to get close enough, or when I found really large birds.

Did you keep any of your Pentax gear? I still have the K-50 with the 50mm f/1.7A, a good indoor studio camera.

I don't miss IBIS that much because all the latest long Nikon telephotos have VR. But I will be interested to see if the IBIS in the Z cameras makes the 500pf or newer Z lenses like the 200-600 more effective than just the VR by itself.



Mar 16, 2021 at 10:43 AM
OwlsEyes
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p.2 #17 · D500 Shooters. What is your next upgrade?


AccessDenied wrote:
That's a great point. Multiple great points...
I actually have played around with Topaz suite but my laptop couldn't handle the workflows at the time. I built a new SFFPC last year though so it should be just fine now. Maybe I'll grab the trial software and test it out again.

The other thing I'm trying to determine is if a fabled 60MP Z arrives, will it be the thing I want to spend ultimately $7-8k on for a new body and native lens?
Or, will I want to take my wife on a really nice vacation since we've been unable to the
...Show more

I always choose travel over gear... I've spent way more on my excursions to East Africa (2 visits), Iceland (2 visits), Costa Rica (14 visits), and Coastal BC photo expeditions (2 visits), than on my photo gear. I'd much rather invest my disposable income in doing a deep study of new subjects than on a lens or camera. It is for this reason that I use a 500PF instead of a 500E (not the weight), and why I now use a Sigma 120-300 Sport instead of Nikon's equivalent lens.
My travels are my memories...
I'm currently saving money to travel back to Africa during the Summer of 2022. This trip would be enough for me to buy all new gear, but I'd much rather photograph African wildlife w/ 2nd best gear, than photograph local song birds with the best that Nikon has to offer.

regards,
bruce



Mar 16, 2021 at 10:57 AM
TooManyShots
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p.2 #18 · D500 Shooters. What is your next upgrade?


Nothing other than another Z body with the same or better speed, performance, and AF as the D500. Is not happening yet. So, I would be using the D500 for a while. I have a Z6 already and so....A d850 or even D6 isn't what I need and in fact way over my budget....


Mar 16, 2021 at 11:25 AM
ChrisMak
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p.2 #19 · D500 Shooters. What is your next upgrade?


AccessDenied wrote:
Hah nice! What did you shoot with? My primary kit was a K-3ii and DA*300 with the 1.4xTC
It was actually a very nice combination, but AF was SLOW in comparison to the D500/500PF combo...

I do miss in body image stabilization and focus peaking, but I don't regret the sell-off to go with Nikon. This was in 2016 I think? I was waiting patiently for the K-3iii announcement... Glad I didn't wait another 4+ years!?


Another former Pentax user here, now shooting the D500+500PF via a detour past the Canon 7DII + 400DOII. I used the K3(II) + DA560mm f5.6 combo for 4 years, and seriously, if Pentax were not taking the whole of a decade to put out a replacement for the K3, I would re-purchase the DA560. The K3 was buggy and the AF had slow response, after yet another series of the infamous mirror-flopping I had had enough and switched to Canon.

Long story short: Canon and Nikon high end lenses are far better in use, but the images produced by the DA560 are still amongst my favorite. I am still waiting for any brand to make a high end 600mm f5.6 prime lens of any mount or optical formula. But Pentax was the only one that got close with the optics that such a lens can muster.
It had some wicked abberations in the wrong light or with the wrong background, but had incredible clarity and color rendition at 784mm crop with the 1.4TC, thanks to its 6 element optical formula. Neither the 400DOII+2.0TC or the 500PF+1.4TC can do the same. It also had great distance performance and handled very bright light a good deal better than the lenses I used since. The only way to get that reach and clarity is up to a 600mm f4. The AF for anything other than static or slow moving sucked though.



Mar 16, 2021 at 12:30 PM
AccessDenied
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p.2 #20 · D500 Shooters. What is your next upgrade?


Well, after all that I found a like-new D850 on the marketplace here and bought it in a bundle with a 105mm F1.4E.

Together, they were less than a new Z7ii with FTZ adapter. I've been intrigued by this lens, mainly because when I shot Pentax I absolutely LOVED the 70mm focal length on my K-3ii (105mm equivalent).

So, if the 105E doesn't work out. I can sell it off and keep my 85mm F1.8G for portraits and have a solid FF option to supplement my D500 for a FRACTION of the price of going FF mirrorless.

One day I may (most probably) go mirrorless. But I'm just not there yet. Z9 may change my mind, but I'm kidding myself if I think I'm going to buy that and a couple lenses at release!



Mar 16, 2021 at 01:21 PM
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